That's What a Family Does
by riestarr
Summary: Matthew, of course, was the first to notice. (SPOILERS for the post-credits ending of Dark Dawn.)


Matthew, of course, was the first to notice the massive Psynergy vortex. The three of them took off at a dead run across the bridge, where the cottage laid mostly in ruin, thanks to the vortex pulling it apart. And worst of all, Isaac and Garet were lying in the middle of the wreckage, motionless.

"Dad!" Matthew screamed, and Karis burst into tears. Matthew shook his father, trying not to cry himself.

The sound of footsteps behind them caught their attention, and Matthew twisted around without getting up. Karis, in spite of her tears, had an arrow halfway up to her bow before they recognized the figures. "Jenna! Dad!" She dropped the weapon immediately and ran to hug her father as Jenna flew past her, seeming not to notice the wreckage.

"What's happened here?" Ivan asked, holding his daughter close. "We left Kalay as soon as the Eclipse ended."

"We don't know... We just got back ourselves," said Tyrell, staring numbly at his father.

Jenna dropped to her knees next to her husband, pulling his head into her lap and bending close to his face. Matthew could hear her speaking to him, but couldn't understand the words. It was only a moment later that he recognized the glow of Psynergy flowing from her body and into his.

Isaac's fingers twitched.

"Knew you could take more hits than that," she said, smiling a little and pulling back. "Just unconscious."

Garet, of his own accord, began to wake up, and Tyrell sniffled and rubbed at his eyes (actions that he would later fiercely deny ever having done).

The moment was shattered when that distinctive warping sound was heard, and Blados and Chalis appeared at the edge of the remains of their cottage. The younger three were immediately scrambling for their weapons, but Jenna's voice stopped them.

"No, don't. Wait."

She kissed Isaac on the forehead and eased him back to the ground. He stirred again, and Matthew caught a glimpse of her tearstained face before she stood and stepped away from him, towards the two intruders.

"I've only known one person who could warp like that..." she said softly, sounding somewhat interested. "Would you have any relation to Alex of Imil, by any chance?"

"No relation," said Chalis, voice as smooth and seductive as ever, though she did look a little haggard thanks to her recent beating. "We worked with him, though. Until recently."

"So he manipulated you, too," Jenna said, picking through the wreckage much more carefully than she had on her way in. "Is he dead?"

"Afraid not," said Blados, gruffly.

"So why are you here?" Jenna asked, now standing in front of them.

Chalis smirked. "Well, to be honest... We control these Psynergy vortexes. We learned how to master their power. And then we thought, well, why not start one up down here. Finish things off."

"But we nearly killed you!" Tyrell shouted, outraged.

"'Nearly' being the operative word," Blados said. "You should've finished us off when you had the chance."

"You said 'until recently,'" Jenna broke in. "What did you mean by that?"

"He betrayed us," Blados said, and started to continue, but she cut him off.

"Oh, did he? Well doesn't that sound just like him," Jenna said. Her fingers were tapping quietly on the hilt of the sword she had strapped to her side-the Masamune, Matthew realized. He'd only ever seen it on the wall next to his father's Excalibur, at their home in Kalay. His mother had started to move again, walking closer to Blados and Chalis, and perhaps without realizing it, they were backing away.

Jenna sighed. "I know how it is, with Alex. You're traveling with him, and at times he acts like a perfect gentleman... 'My dear Jenna, please forget I ever said anything.' But then, something about him seems off. You're never quite sure which side he's on. And you think, in the back of your mind, maybe it would be better if he was just gone."

Blados and Chalis were both nodding, seeming almost hypnotized.

"He manipulates things, twisting people to do what he wants, and nobody realizes it until it's too late." She was still tapping her fingers on the Masamune's hilt. "He walked us right into his plans, and we thought they'd backfired...but you're telling me he's alive."

"Yes. He used us...to push Matthew and the others in the direction we wanted," Chalis said, voice shaking just slightly.

Jenna's body tensed with shock for a moment, and then her eyes narrowed. "I knew it. We had Karst and Agatio, and my son has you two. And Alex behind it all," she said softly, almost to herself. And then, louder, "So are you telling me that you fought Matthew and his friends?"

Blados looked very worried. "You said it yourself. We were being manipulated."

"But it never occurred to you, just once, to stop and _think_?" Jenna said, voice steadily raising in volume. "That maybe it might be wrong to attack _children_?"

"It wasn't under our control-" Chalis began, and Matthew saw her hand fumbling at her belt for a grenade, or worse.

"Mom, don't, they're dangerous!" he shouted, standing up. Jenna's face twisted into a smirk.

"Matthew, you told me once when you were younger that I was scary when I got mad." Her voice had dropped in volume again, and in pitch. He'd never heard her sound this way before, with the anger hidden beneath her words instead of right on the surface. "Right now, if that's still true, I must be absolutely terrifying, because I am furious.

"I thought my husband was dead. Again. And I find out it's you two that caused it, and on top of it all..." Jenna stopped her forward motion, bringing her other foot solidly to the dirt beneath her. "It was you two people who hurt _my son_." In a sudden blur of motion, her sword was out, sheath clattering to the ground, and she launched herself at the two figures in front of her, so quickly that they scarcely had enough time to draw their weapons to defend themselves. They fought back, but they clearly weren't getting anywhere. Jenna's anger was the fuel to her fire, and they had no chance.

Within the space of nearly a minute, she had them both on the ground, Masamune pointed squarely at Blados's neck.

The whole place was dead silent but for the thrumming of the Psynergy vortex, until Isaac stood, carefully, and approached his wife. The muscles in her back tensed up. "Are you okay?" Her voice shook a little, betraying the toll the physical exertion had taken on her.

"I've had worse," he said. Lowering his voice so that only she could hear, he continued, "Are you going to kill them?"

She half-smiled, and spoke not to her husband but to her son. "Matthew, watch closely." She adjusted the Masamune in her hands, and raised it above her head. "This is how your family finishes things."

Venus knew Matthew had seen bodies before, he'd seen carnage and murder and more blood than he'd ever wanted to see in his life. He didn't particularly want to see any more, but he didn't say anything to that effect. Seeing his mother in this state was enough to scare him out of it.

Another flash of motion, and the sword flew down-

-piercing the ground at Blados's side, mere fractions of an inch away from his body.

"Get up," she snarled, and Isaac took a reflexive step backward as Psynergetic fire flared around her for an instant. The two of them carefully climbed to their feet, cringing from the burns and sword wounds she'd inflicted during the short, but brutal fight.

"I'm not going to kill you now," said Jenna, in that lower-pitched voice again, "because I'm better than that. I don't like to cause blood. But be warned that if you so much as set foot near my family again, I won't be so merciful." Matthew's enemies seemed frozen to the spot in front of his mother, until she shouted, "Go!" and they took off sprinting.

She watched them, shoulders thrown back and eyes blazing, not saying a word. When they had disappeared from sight, her muscles seemed to relax all at once, and she collapsed backwards, where Isaac was waiting to catch her. He lifted her into his arms, wincing and readjusting slightly as her weight aggravated his previous injuries, and turned towards their ruined cottage.

"Matthew, the sword, please," he said as he walked past, and Matthew knew by the tone in his father's voice not to ask questions. He ran to the spot of the battle, bending slightly to pull the Masamune out of where it was driven into the ground, only to jerk back with a yelp when his hand touched the hilt.

Karis approached behind him as he blew on his hand and quietly cursed himself for his decision to wear fingerless gloves. "It burned you?"

"Yeah."

"She must've been heating it with her Psynergy during the fight. It's a wonder the sword didn't melt." Karis extended her hand towards the blade, and sent a quiet whirlwind towards it. "Try it now, I think that should cool it off a bit."

He did manage to pick up the sword without further hurting himself, and the two of them followed Isaac back towards the cottage. As they drew closer, Matthew saw that his father had swept the debris off of one of the beds and laid Jenna on it, then sitting himself on the edge and taking her hand. His free hand fiddled with a Psy crystal that he must have had stashed away somewhere.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Matthew asked, even as he noted the steady golden glow of Isaac's Psynergy.

"She'll be fine. Just exhausted herself. It's been a good thirty years since she's fought like that, you know. And that was before she had a child." Isaac quirked an eyebrow at his son, and Matthew smiled a little.

"Can we go back to Kalay when she wakes up? I just...I just want to be home."

He smiled, but it was slightly sad, as he knew far too well what the loss of a home felt like. He had hoped that somehow his son would never have to go through it the same way. "Of course. We're sticking together from here on out... That's what family does. And we," he gestured toward Ivan, Garet, Tyrell, and Karis, "are all a family."


End file.
